1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates generally to a disposal system for waste paper. Specifically, the present invention relates to a system for shredding and compacting sheets of waste paper such that the volume of the shredded paper is significantly reduced.
2. Description of The Prior Art
Disposal of waste paper is a problem facing all types of businesses since the volume of paper involved in all types of transactions and publications is very high. Further, due to environmental considerations, it is preferable that paper be disposed of in a manner which allows recycling thereof to conserve resources.
Thus, paper shedders are used by many businesses to dispose of waste paper. However, according to this, shredding is carried out according to cutting of the paper into a plurality of elongated strips, producing an inconveniently high volume of shredded paper which may complicate ease of disposal and recycling.
Thus, it has been required to provide a system for disposing of waste paper in which a volume of processed waste paper is held low while ease of recycling may be enhanced.
Another consideration in the utilization of paper shredders is document security, wherein documents considered classified or secret by a user may be shredded after use to maintain security of the contents. However, as noted above, since paper shredders commonly slice paper into long strips which remain bulked together after shredding, it is possible that document security may be compromised.
Thus, it has further been required to provide a waste paper disposal system in which disposed of documents may not be reconstituted from the output of the disposal system.
Japanese Utility Model Application (first publication) No. 1-43173 discloses a waste paper disposal system including a shredding portion and a waste paper compression portion for addressing the above problems. According to this disclosure, waste paper is dropped into a shredding chamber having parallel rotatable shafts mounting thereon a plurality of blades, the shafts are driven so as to respectively rotate toward a space defined between the shafts. Above the shafts mounting the blades for shredding, another pair of shafts mount projecting members which are rotated for separating sheets of paper before shredding. In addition, below the shredding chamber a hopper directs shredded paper to a screw which is mounted so as to be axially parallel to the blade shafts. The screw is rotated so as to drive waste paper to a tapered end thereof which is housed in a tapered chamber at which the shredded paper is moistened by water of the like, by this action the shredded paper is compressed and output via a cylindrical output tube for reducing a volume of waste paper output.
However, according to the above, a large area is required for such an apparatus and all shredding occurs in the space between the blade shafts which may cause clogging if a large volume of paper is to be shredded. Further, the provision of the rotating projecting members increases a required height for the apparatus. In addition, when large volumes of paper are to be processed, the shredded paper is very bulky and disposal thereof is inconvenient.